PRESIDENT FLORES: Good afternoon. It is an
honor for us to be here with you, and to be able to answer the
questions that you want to ask President Bush and myself. I
would like to start by saying that for El Salvador, it is an immense
honor to have President Bush in our land.

El Salvador has been a country that has faced enormous difficulties
-- the war, combat against poverty, earthquakes. And El
Salvador has done this through a system of freedoms, in the search of a
democracy, the search of economic freedom, as well -- giving people the
opportunity, the opportunity to get education, to trade of their
products, and to integrate into the new world.

So a country like ours, that believes in freedom, feels especially
honored to have a world leader that has built a leadership based on
values and principles, values that have to do with the rights of human
beings. And this allows us, countries that are so different like the
United States and El Salvador, to find each other in a common point.

So welcome to our country, President Bush. It is an
immense honor to have you here in our country.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Gracias, Senor Presidente, mi
amigo. Thank you, President Flores, for providing such warm
hospitality in this beautiful country. Laura and I were
struck when we flew in about your beautiful mountains and your
beautiful sea. I'm honored to be here, for the first time in
my life.

We've just completed our fifth meeting -- this is the fifth time
that the President and I have met. And in each of them, I
have come away from out meetings most optimistic about the future of El
Salvador. I truly believe this country has got a unique
President and a great President. El Salvador -- and the
reason why I believe that is because of the success of the country.

El Salvador is one of the really great stories of economic and
political transformation of our time. Just over a decade
ago, this country was in civil war. For millions of
Salvadorans, violence was a daily reality, and prosperity was just a
distant dream. Today, El Salvador is at
peace. The country has renewed its commitment to democracy
and economic reform and trade. It is one of the freest and
strongest and most stable countries in our hemisphere.

The United States considers El Salvador a close friend and strong
ally. As friends, we come to each other's aid in times of
crisis. Since September the 11th, El Salvador has been
unwavering in its support for the international coalition against
terrorism. I want to thank the President and the people of
El Salvador for their prayers for the American people during this
crisis. I want to thank you, as well, for ordering a freeze
on suspected terrorist assets and for strengthening your border
security.

And when the devastating earthquakes hit El Salvador last year, the
United States immediately dispatched rescue workers and relief
assistance. We proudly contributed millions of dollars to El
Salvador's reconstruction effort. And we will spend even
more in the year 2002.

Our countries are united by ties of commerce and culture and
kindship. The large number of Salvadorans who live in the United
States make valuable contributions to our economy and send
approximately $2 billion back home to family members in El Salvador
each year, cada anno. Trade between our countries now
approaches $4 billion annually. That is up 140
percent. And trade means jobs. Trade means people
who want to work are more likely to find jobs in both countries.

El Salvador is one of the really bright lights in Latin
America. Many countries in this region have changed old ways
and have found new wealth and new freedom. In this coming
decade, El Salvador and the United States, and nations throughout this
hemisphere are committed to maintaining and extending this progress.

Greater trade can help us accomplish this goal. In
January, I announced we would pursue a free trade agreement with
Central American nations. And the President and I, after
this press conference, will be having lunch with other leaders in
Central America to discuss this very proposition. And we're
also going to continue to pursue the Free Trade of the Americas, which
aims to encompass the entire hemisphere in a free trade
agreement. Completing these agreements will promote
prosperity throughout the hemisphere, and reinforce the region's
progress toward political, and economic, and social reform.

I just met with two El Salvadorans, who are seated right here, who
personify the cause of reform. One's an architect, and one's
an economist. They are El Salvador's first two participants in the
Americas Fellows Program. Soon, they will be coming to
Washington to spend time working in the United States government
offices, where I believe they will acquire new skills and
training. And they can bring them back home, and share them
with others. And thank you all so very much about
participating in the program.

I'm also optimistic about this country's future. There's
no doubt in my mind that because of this man's leadership, there are
bright days ahead for El Salvador. And it's an honor to be
invited here, and it's an honor to call him friend. And I
want to confirm the fact that this nation remains a strong ally with
the great people of El Salvador.

Senor Presidente, gracias.

Questions.

Q Good afternoon, President
Bush. Good afternoon, President Flores. As you
said, I'm William Melendez (phonetic) from Channel 12, and I have the
honor of trying to summarize the questions of all my other colleagues
and the mass media of El Salvador.

Presidents, the benefits, the needed benefits of a free trade
agreement can delay themselves, if we are not mistaken, to arrive to
our countries, maybe five, six years, because the mechanism is a
bilateral mechanism, bilateral negotiation. And so the
migration could continue working hard during that phase.

I would like to know, what will the treatment be of the United
States of America for those fellow men of ours so that they can
regulate their migration status immediately. And, besides,
since poverty is the weakness, what conditions could be applied so that
the countries, the poorer countries of our region, especially El
Salvador, can optimize their resources and avoid that the states could
become main allies of the economic oligopolies?

PRESIDENT BUSH: A couple points. One, you're
right, trade agreements sometimes take too long. And we
intend to push as hard as we possibly can to get the trade agreement
done. I was very serious when I announced the trade
agreement and we're going to work hard to expedite the agreement.

Secondly, the President made an interesting suggestion, which I
will take very seriously. He said, make sure that a country
is allowed to accelerate its moving into a free trade
agreement. In other words, if the country meets conditions
and conditions of rule of law and private property, conditions that I'm
confident El Salvador will meet early, let us make sure that if another
nation hadn't met those conditions, El Salvador can ascend to the free
trade agreement early.

So one way to cut the time is to analyze the President's
request. It made a lot of sense to me, and we'll take a good
look at it.

There's no question there's a lot of hard-working Salvadorans in
the United States. And the first thing I want to assure the
people of this good country is that we want to make sure they're
treated with respect. We want them to be -- we recognize --
I recognize that family values, something we talk a lot about in
American, don't stop at the Rio Bravo.

There are people who care deeply about their families in El
Salvador; they want to work; they're looking for jobs. And
the cornerstone of good economic policy, or good immigration policy, is
to match a willing employer with a willing worker to make that happen,
to facilitate that arrangement. And that's going to be the cornerstone
of immigration reform in the -- as this issue comes up in Congress.

On the other hand, there are specific areas of immigration policy
that affects the people of El Salvador, starting with
TPS. My administration granted TPS last time the issue came
up. And it doesn't come up until September, and we'll take a
very hard look at it this summer.

And the second issue is a bill that's working through the Congress
introduced, if I'm not mistaken, by a Democrat and Republican -- one
named Berman, one named Davis -- that would grant same status to
Salvadorans, Hondurans, Guatemalans, as those granted to Nicaraguans
and Cubans. And we will take a look at that bill, as well.

In term of oligopoly, the best way to avoid oligopolies is to
encourage open markets and competition. The best way to make
sure that oligopolies do not dominate an economy to the detriment of
the people is to do what the President's done -- insist that the
markets be open; insist that competition allowed -- is
encouraged. And another way to enhance open markets and
competition is through trade -- honest, open trade.

And so that's what I've come to talk about today. And I
believe President Flores is on the absolute right track to making sure
oligopolies don't dominate this economy.

Ken Walsh, U.S. News, fine American. (Laughter.)

Q Thank you, Mr. President. Mr.
President, when you return home, new campaign finance legislation will
be awaiting your signature. I wonder if you could tell us if
you're going to, given your criticisms of campaign finance legislation
in the past, if you're going to sign this bill reluctantly or
whole-heartedly; what the impact you think will be on our political
system; and how you regard the impending legal challenge to the
legislation?

PRESIDENT BUSH: I sign it -- I have a kind of a firm,
semi-firm signature as it moves across the page --
(laughter). I wouldn't be signing it if I didn't think it
improved the system. And I think it improves the system this
way: One, individuals will be allowed to contribute more to
the campaigns. I've always been skeptical of a system where
monies were put into the system where people didn't have a choice --
whether it be a labor union worker or a shareholder of a
corporation. Sometimes shareholders of corporations -- they
make an investment for hopefully a good rate of return, and yet they
wake up and realize that some CEO or somebody's made the decision to
support a political party or a candidate not of their
choosing. And I've always kind of thought that the
individual ought to have a choice. And so, therefore, the
fact that the system encourages more individual participation I think
is positive.

Finally, they've raised individual limits. I also think
this will help challengers. And as much as I now love
incumbency -- (laughter) -- I think it's important to encourage
challenges in the system.

I am worried about some of the provisions; I stated so in my
signing statement. One such provision was that you can't --
they're going to try to control who can participate in the election
process in the last 60 days. And we'll see whether or not that stands
up. I'm going to stay, by the way, totally apart from the
legal matters.

One of the things I'm disappointed in the law is -- and again, this
may not stand a court challenge -- but I've always thought that people
who pump money into the political system, we ought to know who they
are. I was a little discouraged -- not discouraged -- I was
quite discouraged at the end of the 2000 campaign to see tons of
dollars flowing into the political campaign at the last minute, on
these so-called independent groups, and we don't know who was funding
them.

And -- you know the kind of ads I'm talking
about: scurrilous, untrue ads, coming into the
campaign. A so-called front group,
independent. And we don't have any idea who's putting the
money in. And that's not good for democracy.

And so I didn't particularly appreciate the fact that this campaign
bill didn't adequately address full disclosure. Now, the
excuse, evidently, was the courts won't allow it. Well, I
would have liked to have seen them challenge the system, to see whether
the courts might allow it now that we're going into the 21st century.

But, nevertheless, the bill is a better bill than the current
system, and I'm going to sign it. And there will be -- I
take it back. It will be a signature -- I won't
hesitate. It will probably take about -- you know, about
three seconds to get to the W, I may hesitate on the period, and then
rip through the Bush. (Laughter.) Thank you.

Q Good afternoon to both
Presidents. The first question is for President Bush,
because we're talking about taking very seriously the free trade
agreement with Central America. President, you're also
saying and talking about openness. You said that we were
going to eliminate subsidies in the International Conference for
Development in Monterrey. But the market of the United
States continues being a protectionist with your national -- there are
subsidies for agriculture. I don't know how much it would be
willing -- that is, your government -- to eliminate these subsidies
that are really disrupting the market of the small producers. And
also, if the Senate is going to approve in the short-term the permit to
start the negotiations, because it also -- the advancement of the free
trade agreement will depend on this also.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Let me just say one
thing. Look, we buy more goods from all around the world
than any nation. And, of course, we're the biggest nation,
we're the biggest market. But, nevertheless, we buy billions
of dollars of goods on an annual basis -- billions. I think
it's like $650 billion a year the United States purchases from
countries. And Africa alone, we signed a free trade
agreement with Africa and we had a billion dollars of purchases last
year, which significantly increased employment in Africa.

And there are some instances where we've got -- farm policy, for
example, where people -- where the Congress has decided to fund certain
programs. But this -- our market is wide
open. And by the way, any time there's unfair trade, we will
respond, and I have done so, and will continue to do so, because free
trade must be fair trade, as well.

But I think if you look at the facts and statistics, you'll find
that the U.S. market is one of the most open markets in the world, and
we intend to keep it that way.

PRESIDENT FLORES: I would like to say the
following: Never, never in the history of El Salvador had El
Salvador had the opportunities that they have with the United States of
America, thanks to the Caribbean Basin Initiative. And never
had El Salvador had the possibility of signing a free trade agreement
with the United States before. So the possibility of
openness that the region has with the United States has no precedent in
the history.

Today, while we were flying with President Bush from the airport to
this site, I was telling him what this openness is doing in El
Salvador. And I was explaining to him that many women in the rural
areas have opportunities to work today thanks to that openness of the
United States. And it is producing a dramatic change throughout the
rural areas of our country.

Undoubtedly, the comparison between donated funds and trade is a
comparison that is very different, because it is so much more important
to have trade than donations. So in this sense, we believe
that the focus of President Bush is absolutely true: that
the only way to come out of poverty is through work. And the
way to generate employment in our region is giving the possibility of
investment and work and labor.

Obviously, the agricultural topic is a topic, is an issue, but this
has had an enormous advance for the Salvadorans and the region.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Are you asking another question?

Q Yes --

PRESIDENT BUSH: Okay. What is it?

Q Excuse me. My colleagues from
Guatemala are asking that in Guatemala there has been the withdrawal of
the visas to some militaries. And they want to know if this is part of
the control or the enforcement of the improvement of economies that the
countries are asking for.

PRESIDENT BUSH: ---

Q Thank you, Mr. President. Mr.
President, what is --

PRESIDENT BUSH: Raise the mike a little.

Q Don't think it goes that high.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Okay. (Laughter.)

Q What is your reaction to the Democratic
Party using its national radio address to criticize you on foreign
soil, saying you made this trip to Latin America merely to pander to
Hispanic voters?

PRESIDENT BUSH: Wow. That was the ad?

Q Yes.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Or not the ad, but the -- well, I guess
I'd say I'm disappointed. When I first got elected, I said
the best foreign policy for the United States is to have a prosperous,
peaceful and free neighborhood. My first trip as President of the
United States out of the United States was to Mexico. And my
longstanding interest in this -- in Mexico and Central America is
well-known.

I firmly believe that the best policy for the United States is to
pay attention to our friends, is to promote trade. Trade
produces liberty and freedom. And sometimes in Washington,
D.C., people cannot get rid of old habits -- which is petty politics,
Mr. President. But that's just what happens. But
people in America know that our administration is focused on what's
best for America. And what's best for America is a
prosperous and peaceful El Salvador, y Mexico, y tambien los paises in
Sur de America. There is a great opportunity for all of us to be equal
partners, to work otros para todos los personas cual vida in nuestros
paises.

Senor Presidente, gracias. El honor es mio de esta in
este pais. (It has been my honor to be in this
country. Thank you very much. We have to all work
together to make this happen.) (Applause.)

PRESIDENT FLORES: I just wanted to say, just to close
this conference, that El Salvador, through myself, wants to express
their profound appreciation to the United States of America for having
accompanied us in so many difficult times. And this has to
do with the leadership of President Bush. And Salvadorans
want to recognize you at this moment.

And I would like to end by saying this -- and this is very
personal. I have had some honors in my life, but never had I had such
a high honor as President Bush calling me his friend. Thank
you very much. (Applause.)